Arab League considers tougher measures against Syria

BEIRUT -- Syria faced renewed international pressure Sunday as the Arab League said it would meet this week to consider new moves against the country, after a deadline for the government to end a crackdown on protesters and admit international monitors expired Saturday.

The group of Arab states on Sunday rejected Syria's request for modifications to a proposed program for monitors to enter the country, saying Syria's request would "change the nature of the mission" of the monitors. The Arab League said it planned to meet Thursday to discuss measures that could include heavy sanctions on Syria and exclusion from the league.

The announcement came as reports emerged of an attack on the ruling Baath Party headquarters in central Damascus, the first such strike within the city, and the latest in a series of attacks indicating that some members of the uprising against the government may have turned to violence.

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem, speaking at a news conference in Damascus, called the Arab League's deadline unimportant and said he would send further questions to Arab League chief Nabil Elaraby before deciding whether to agree to the demands of the group.

Moualem was dismissive of international pressure, saying the Arab League, in its condemnations of the government of President Bashar al-Assad, was ignoring the presence of armed gangs operating in the restive city of Homs and threatening the sovereignty of Syria.

He added that comments by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton in Indonesia last week that "there could be a civil war with a very determined and well-armed and eventually well-financed opposition" were "wishful thinking."

Comparing Clinton's remarks to an increasingly strong line taken by Turkish officials against Syria, Moualem asserted that foreign powers were trying to incite sectarian conflict in Syria, where divides have grown among Christians, Sunni Muslims and the Alawite faith of the ruling family and many of its supporters.

Sunday's strike on the Baath Party headquarters followed a high-profile attack Wednesday on an air intelligence base outside Damascus. Details of the attack were unclear.

According to Rami Abdulrahman of the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, people riding motorbikes attacked the building with grenades, hitting an external wall, and then launched two rocket-propelled grenades, which fell to the ground, before riding away.

However, another eyewitness reported seeing a car with machine guns being fired from the windows. The Agence France-Presse news service sent a correspondent to the scene, who reported no signs of damage.

The foremost group conducting armed operations in Syria is the group of defected members of the military known as the Free Syrian Army, but a spokesman denied any involvement in Sunday's attack.

"The Baath Party headquarters and all its branches are owned by the Syrian people and not by the regime, and therefore we do not target them," said Maher Naimi, alleging that regime forces had conducted the attack, with the intention of implicating and discrediting the Free Syrian Army.

He added that the organization was still in defense mode but was planning to move to the "attack phase," during which it could strike Assad's presidential palace and other government institutions.

Assad, in an interview with the Sunday Times, condemned such armed groups, saying, "After eight months the picture is clear to us. . . . It is not a question of peaceful demonstrations but an armed operation."

But on CNN's "State of the Union," former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice laid the blame for unrest squarely on the president, saying Assad is "driving his country to the brink of civil war."

"Syria is the handmaiden of the Iranians throughout the region," Rice said on the Sunday news show. "And so the fall of Bashar al-Assad would be a great thing, not just for the Syrian people -- that's first and foremost -- but also for the policies of the United States and those who want a more peaceful Middle East."

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